Do you know what tombstone raster Death Race uses? How many columns and
rows? The screen shots I have seen, look like there are about 14 columns
and maybe 10 or less rows.
I never tried to figure it out, and given the 2600's resolution I didn't try
to match it exactly. I just figured the zombies would be 16 scanlines high
and tried to cram as many rows into the screen as possible, and used the PF0
register as the natural dividing line between the safe zones and the center
playfield, hence yielding a main painting zone of 32x11 tombstones, or 16x11
if the tombstones are separated.
The screen shots I have seen look more like B or C. And IMO C would look
best (most random) as long as there are not too many tombstones on the
screen.
I think you are right about it being C. It's like a checkerboard pattern.
BTW: What will happen if a zombie is killed very close to an already
existing tombstone?
It will "quantize" the position of the new tombstone to the closest one in
the grid. This could have some interesting unintended results for gameplay
I'm sure. I can think of a nice easter-egg feature to add related to this.
It also gives me an idea for the use of the grenade as a powerup.
And will there a chance to destroy already existing tombstones
(like the mushrooms in Centipede)?
The idea I had was to drop the timer (at least on some variations) and go
for a wave-based approach. When x number of pedestrians cross over or are
run down, the tombstones would start converting back into pedestrians and
you would have to avoid the pedestrians. If a pedestrian hits a car it
takes away a point, or it would probably have to be life-based then. I
haven't completely thought out this part of the game but I'm thinking the AI
would allow cars to somehow shake the zombies off so they head for the safe
zones and leave the screen, or the zombies could have a limited lifespan and
fade to black or degrade into puddles or something.
So DD will become the ultimate retro homebrew, right? ;-)
With your help it could be. I definitely don't want it to extend into 8K.
I can't see how this would be necessary for something this simple. In fact
if there is ROM left over I may have to force myself from adding too much
flashy stuff. Games like Kaboom are a good lesson that it doesn't even take
4K to make a great game.
Ok, what about the grenades (ball)? To finish the specifications for the
kernel, I need to know where (vertically) you want them and if you want
more than one simultaneously on the screen.
I'd want to have at minimum two grenades simultaneously to appear anywhere
horizontally on the boundary lines between the tombstone rows (all but the
very top and bottom of the screen.)
Naturally, only one grenade on a grenade line at a time.
Since the grenade line would be isolated from the tombstones it would be
nice if you did a color register change on it so it would stand out better
than the rest of the playfield.
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